On Mondays in the forest many families 'burn off' the dead leaves and autumn debris gathering around their homes. We had enormous branches falling close to our house between 2 trees I call the guardians. It felt like the ending or release of something heavy and not needed for the tree, and nature's symbols are oracles for our own lives. Yesterday smoke moved through the forest and around our home and it felt like a huge smudging, a smoke-cleanse. Purifying. We are in the pre-eclipse period right now and it is Dark Moon. The Swan Blessings this week have been profound - 2 people emerging from the Blessing with a gift of their own Medicine Names. I love that we are now blessing and naming ourselves - no need for an outside authority.

I walked into the forest yesterday and found the most beautiful red glowing glass-like sap pouring from a tree. She bleeds too. Today I read on Mystic Medusa's website that the Sun is also on the 'mysterious Moon's Node' - auspicious times indeed for connection to ancestors, the Dreamer and past life wisdom. Blessings for your own journeys into the Deep this week. And if you are shedding, let it fall, burning off for the New Moon Solar Eclipse on Friday (10.30am exact in Australia). We are all Medicine Carriers, if your Medicine is calling to you, you are not alone, many of us are reclaiming and rediscovering our Wise Gifts in a new, simple and deeper expression. Listen closely at New Moon...your spirit may be whispering a new name for your own wise medicine.

I woke up this morning and saw this image over on the site of the woman of wonder that is Sister Wolf and I thought how apt it was for the energy of the Dark Moon at the moment. It is a particularly heavy Dark Moon tonight and tomorrow as we are processing the changes and experiences of our lives since the nineties - the era of Neptune in Aquarius. For some of us the last week has felt like a very lonely time, I saw an image of debris being washed up on the shore just then - as if the arrival of Neptune into Pisces earlier this month was a 'moving in time' and we are realising only now that this new energy is making us aware of old furniture and clothing in our 'house' that doesn't fit the new us. There may be relationships that we are seeing with new eyes & employment that feels so old and far away from who we are right now. I have heard from many clients who are experiencing changes in their workplaces that are out of their control - much like the 'dark night of the soul' this is the Dark Moon before the illuminating light of the New Moon in Pisces on Wednesday (9.35am). This New Moon is also conjunct Neptune making it even more magical and flowing - a truly incredible and quite possibly the most powerful New Moon of 2012. So whenever there is a build up to such an important time, we will feel this even more deeply than usual.

Goddess of the Western Isles by Iain Lowe

So in these next 2 days we cannot fight the release and really why would we want to? The Dark Moon is a time to rest, reflect without thinking to much - to open ourselves to feeling the loss of the old before we make way for the new. We are letting go of the old structures, work and relationships that have helped us so much in the last 2 decades and we need to release them as they will become prisons that our heart needs to move beyond in this new era of spiritual awaking. We are being called to be more connected to the voice of our own Spirit and to the voice of the land, our Mother Earth. In this time I will sit with the energy of An Cailleach - the Crone Grandmother of the Celtic Otherworld. This archetype is strong and sometimes fierce - she has no time for wasting - she helps us as we sit at the crossroads of our life. The crossroads are where we are right now, a liminal space of transformation right at the point of stepping out of the old and before we have taken a step into the new. This is a time to talk with our ancestors, our wise relations to ask for guidance and then to listen to our own hearts to find the direction our new path is taking.

The Little Mermaid, Karel Kachyna, 1974

So for everyone who is feeling the rise of debris from the old life as it hits the shore, don't try to hold on, to cling to the past - let go, there is another path waiting after the birth of the New Moon, a path bright & glittering. What is your new path? What is your new commitment to your Spirit? This may come to you over the next 2 nights - a beautiful time for consulting oracles, the Tarot and meditation. If you feel called to deepen the connection to your spirit with the wise old crone An Cailleach, we will be journey with her on Wednesday, the New Moon night as she helps to strip away the debris, the old self before she rebuilds us again, breathing new life into the new self. In this ceremony we call Commitment to Self, held on the date of 22.2.2012 a powerful day in the Mayan Calendar called the Red Solar Serpent Day, a day of creating Harmony within ourselves directed by the balancing energy of the Number 2 we will feel the threshold of the New Path just in front of us and at the New Moon take a conscious step into it.

If you wish to join us please let me know - we are donating all proceeds from this powerful and magically charged evening to the beautiful koalas of the Southern Ash Wildlife Shelter. Let's take that step into the future together.

And the song 'Anthem' by singer & poet Leonard Cohen that always helps me to let go... 'there is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in'.

I am inviting you to go deeper, to learn and to practice so that you become someone who has a great capacity for being solid, calm, and without fear, because our society needs people like you who have these qualities, and your children, our children, need people like you, in order to go on, in order to become solid, and calm, and without fear.

The Tale of the Golden ToadOn this weekend of the Dark Moon it is a beautiful time to go within, to quieten our minds so that we hear the voice of the heart more clearly. What is falling away in the dark before the birth of the New Moon? The New Moon on Monday is the start of the Chinese New Year, a time when I actually physically feel the start of the year. To help you meditate and explore your own personal motifs and symbols, the language of your heart, in this visionary year I thought I would begin the dreaming by sharing the work of one of my favourite artists: Madeline von Foerster. Each painting is an oracle within an oracle, every symbol whispers a new clue. What message is here for you?www.madelinevonfoerster.com